(CTV.ca News Staff) – The RCMP will ask an outside party to investigate Mounties in cases where death, serious injury, suspected criminal behaviour or “matters of public confidence” are involved.
RCMP Commissioner William Elliot announced the new policy at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
“We consider this measure an interim step to provide further independence and assurances of impartiality whenever employees of the RCMP are under investigation,” he said.
Alberta and Ontario have created agencies that would allow Mounties to be investigated independently, Elliot added. Similar agencies are being set up in Manitoba and Nova Scotia.
Where no such organization exists, another police force would be asked to take on the investigation. And if that’s not possible due to a lack or resources, for example, the commissioner said Mounties would lead the investigation themselves and take additional precautions.
Those precautions include bringing in RCMP officers from out of province to conduct the probe, and appointing outside observers to provide “independent review.”
A team of at least two officers would be assigned to conduct the investigation after being screened for conflicts of interest in the case. The senior officer would outrank whoever is under investigation, where possible.
“The RCMP must strive to be as open and transparent as possible, and fully accountable for our actions,” Elliot said. “We would prefer the RCMP never to be called upon to conduct investigations of our own employees.”
The long-term goal, Elliot added, is for the organization to work with all levels of government to encourage more independent investigations, where an RCMP officer is the focus.
“I believe that the RCMP has in the past conducted impartial and thorough investigations of our members,” Elliot said. “However, I’m convinced we collectively need to raise the bar.”
The new rules are intended to guide the decisions of the police force, which has the authority to choose how its officers are investigated.
In recent years there have been a number of controversial cases in which the RCMP investigated its own.
In one case, Robert Dziekanski died at the Vancouver airport in 2007, after he was struck by an RCMP Taser. In another instance, Ian Bush was shot and killed by a Mountie in British Columbia in 2005.
In a statement, Public Safety minister Vic Toews welcomed the change in policy.
“Our government’s position continues to be that effective review should be external to the force,” Toews said. “This announcement demonstrates the RCMP’s commitment to becoming a stronger, more accountable and modern organization.”
Independent agencies to probe RCMP complaints
CBC News
Feb 4, 2009
The RCMP will bring in independent agencies to investigate, whenever possible, if a member of its own force has been accused of serious offences, the RCMP commissioner said.
“I believe that the RCMP has in the past conducted impartial and thorough investigations of our members. This has been validated time and time again by the commission for public complaints against the RCMP, ” William Elliott said on Thursday as he announced the new policy.
“However, I’m convinced that we collectively need to raise the bar in terms of how we respond to situations where life is lost, serious injuries sustained, or sensitive matters of public confidence and trust are raised.”
Elliott acknowledged that the policy does not eliminate the possibility that the RCMP could investigate itself or address the broader subject of the police investigating the police.
“But it does incorporate in policy what we have been saying, what I have been saying is the RCMP is in favour of independent investigations,” he said. “And wherever possible that is what we will look to.”
In cases where the RCMP has been involved in the serious injury or death of an individual, or if an RCMP employee is suspected of contravening the criminal code, the investigation will be referred to a provincially or federally established independent agency, Elliott said.
If that type of agency isn’t available, an external law enforcement agency will be requested. In other cases, the RCMP may bring in officers from a different province than the one in which the incident occurred.
In cases where there is no choice but for the RCMP to investigate itself, cases would be assigned to a two-member team who will be screened for any possible conflicts of interest, Elliott said.
The rank of the primary investigator, whenever possible, would be higher than the subject being investigated, he said.
Elliott said the new policy standardizes some practices that are fairly common by making them a mandatory requirement.
“The best solution is to take those investigations out of the hands of the police, as has been done in Ontario, but unless and until governments take the step to do that, we have to do the best we can with the tools available to us.”
“We see this as an interim and partial solution. It is not a complete solution and we don’t pretend that it is.”
Paul Kennedy, former chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, said the initiatives are a “significant good gesture” but that there’s more to do.
“It still leaves a variety of responses across the country, some of which will fall short, I think, of what public expectations are.”
Kennedy said that many of the provinces don’t have a regime in place that the RCMP can look to, meaning they will be looking to another police force to take over the investigations or they will have to do it themselves.